Holiday Sangria

A house full of family for Thanksgiving week meant afternoon puzzles and evening card games. And maybe a little sangria. Maybe enough sangria to enjoy for a second night. The recipe said to make it and put in the refrigerator overnight. Jessica mixed it in the morning and we sampled it late that afternoon. It wasn't bad, but it was a little unimpressive. It really did need the be mixed the night before.

It was a night after Thanksgiving that we had a nice cheese platter and this sangria. Made our supper of leftovers feel more like a party. The next night we poured up what was left. And that sangria had pizazz. The cinnamon and fruit flavors were bright and full. It really did need more time in the refrigerator. This was the easiest recipe to put together. Instead of adding sugar, the gentle sweetness came from adding apple cider to the wine. 

The end of last year's Christmas napkins.

This drink looks like a party. It tastes like a party. I'm saving the recipe for Christmas because I'm sure we will make it again. If you're having a very small party. Make a single bottle batch for a very small party. Just allow enough time to let the flavors develop.

HOLIDAY SANGRIA

2 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon
2 cups apple cider
4 cinnamon sticks.
1 cup fresh cranberries
1 red apple, sliced (don't peel it)
1 orange, sliced & seeded (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Serve in a wine glass, being sure to add some fruit to each glass.


Some apple ciders are bolder than others, I like the stronger kind for this mix. But use the one that suits your tastes. Or, the one that you can find in your store.

Thankful For Memories

I wish I had kept notes last week. We had the entire family here for Thanksgiving week. We had no heat for the first few days. We had lots of cooking and cleaning up in the kitchen. We had wild games of UNO. We had crazy post-Thanksgiving workouts. (Well, they did.) We had that precious kind of family time that is the stuff memories are made of.

But most of that is only a memory now. One thing I can share from last week (thanks to Mommy for making pictures) is a kid-friendly recipe that Mommy found. One rainy afternoon after Thanksgiving she let her little ones bake a treat for the rest of us.

Little Sister told us that the recipe said to spread "one-slash-two" of pumpkin. That's a 1/2 cup for those of you who are not fluent in kid speak. (The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of pumpkin.)

And the twists are sprinkled with "cimmanon"—but not sugar. (It actually was pumpkin pie spice.) It was kind of nice to have a non-sweet treat after our holiday indulgences.

Baby Girl had her turn sprinkling pumpkin pie spice over a pan of pumpkin twists.

She performed that task like she does everything—at full speed. No timid approach to anything she does.

PUMPKIN PIE TWISTS

1 (8-oz) can refrigerated crescent rolls (that makes 8 rolls)
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 375º.  Press triangles together to make 4 rectangles. Use a spatula to spread pumpkin over 2 of the rectangles. Top each pumpkin covered rectangle with another rectangle of dough. Cut the rectangles lengthwise into skinny strips. Twist up each long strip. Put parchment paper (or silicon baking mat) on baking pan. Put twists on pan. Sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice. Bake for 12 minutes, or until twists are brown. Serve warm.


After they made these, almost by themselves, they served the warm twists to all of us as we watched football on TV. I liked sitting down and being served!

Now, being a Southern grandmother—and Southerners love their sweets—I probably would drizzle a little glaze over the tops of these. But goodness knows we didn't need more sweets after chocolate pound cake, pumpkin pie and prune cake. And keeping the recipe simple was just right for little hands to be the bakers. Hang on to this idea for a good grandchildren activity.

There Is Still Time To Bake

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie

I'm baking this morning. A pumpkin pie for tomorrow. And I nearly panicked when the recipe was not here on the blog. And it wasn't in the family cookbook that we use all the time. That book is so well loved that everyone's copy is falling apart. Then I remembered the original place I kept my favorite recipes. It was a blank book with a red plaid cover. My mother gave me the book for Christmas a zillion years ago with no particular purpose in mind.

And back in 1979, it became my recipe book. Yes, I dated the recipes as I added them and made notes about where I served a recipe, and if it was part of a meal, I even listed the guests in attendance. I do similar things here on the blog now. But nothing will take the place of this tattered little red book. It's nearly a history of my life—the early edition.

Anyway, to keep things where I search for them now, I'm adding my pumpkin pie recipe to the blog. This pie is very close to the classic one on the pumpkin can label. But I adjusted the spices years ago and added a little flour to give the filling more body.

Oven ready.

If you have the ingredients on hand, you've got time to do this pie for Thanksgiving. It's super easy. Just stir it all together. I used a refrigerated pie crust in a 9-inch pie plate.

THANKSGIVING PUMPKIN PIE

2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 15-oz can of pumpkin (NOT the pie filling kind)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
12-oz can evaporated milk
9-inch deep dish pie shell

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix filling ingredients in order listed. Pour into pie shell. Bake 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for about 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate.


I find it helpful to measure out the spices before I start the rest of the mixing. And I stir together the spices with the sugar and flour before adding to the pumpkin/egg mixture. (That was a good job for my helper #1.) Seems to me that everything is easier to blend that way.

My helpers

Good luck with your Thanksgiving cooking if you are doing it this year. If something doesn't work out right (and I've already had that happen) just move on the the next thing. Either no one will remember, or it will be the story that everyone loves to tell from year to year. It works out either way.


UPDATE:  Mercy, I'm trying to do too much. This pie recipe was posted here last year. But without photos. Surely next year I can find it on one of these two blog posts!

There's Always Knitting

Pattern:  Sock Recipe: A Good, Plain Sock by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Yarn:  Lollipop Yarn Quientessential, color way Christmas Carol

Needles:  size 1.5

Just popping in for a quick hello while our Thanksgiving visitors are still asleep this morning. This week will be more about family and food than knitting. But there is always knitting happening along the way, I cast on a pair of Christmas socks this weekend. Socks are a small project that can be tucked in a purse or bag and worked on in bits and pieces as life swirls around you. 

I call this a "side project." I'm using a perfectly plain pattern. The yarn does the design work. For most of the sock, I'm just going round and round and round. No counting, no thinking.

Pattern: Piper's Journey, by Paula Emmons-Fuessle

Yarn: Quince Chickadee, color way Barolo

Needles: sizes 6

I finished this small shawl last week. It's a lovely project designed in two parts. The body of the shawl is all garter stitch so it is great for "public knitting." That means you can knit and talk at the same time. The border is knitted after the body is finished and the pattern for that isn't difficult, but you do have to keep track of where you are. So I knitted that part when I had fewer distractions.

Pattern: Maine Morning Mitts, by Clara Parks

Yarn: Patons Classic Wool Worsted, color way Grey Mix

Needles: size 7

These fly off the needles. Larger yarn. Bigger needles. I can make one fingerless mitt in an afternoon. So a two day project. And who doesn't need a pair of mitts? Whip out a pair for someone on your gift list. There's time. It's a free pattern.

Now. Back to my previously scheduled cooking. If I don't see you again this week, Happy Thanksgiving!

Cold Rain. Warm Food.

The weather is just strange this year. We had the "endless summer" and then someone flipped the switch to "cold rain." Inches and inches of rain. And the cold...while we are still waiting on a new furnace.

Our dinner-with-TV group didn't let that stop anything. We just took appropriate measures—rain jackets, careful driving—and we all arrived safely. With food. It was my turn to bring the main dish. And this kind of night called for something that warmed us up. Chili and cornbread sounded good to me. So I made a double batch of turkey pumpkin chili. Turkey? Pumpkin? These friends were all curious when I told them what I was bringing. 

I promise no one would know it has pumpkin in it unless you tell them. It's a rich, thick chili with a mild flavor. It is the easiest chili I've made. The hands-on part is only browning the meat and chopping the onion. The rest is just stirred together. And then it cooks in a slow cooker or on the stovetop. That's it. 

It's the recipe that Mommy discovered years ago and it has become her standard Halloween night supper. I made it at her house a couple of weeks ago when my visit there included Halloween festivities. I've made it several times myself but as it often happens, I had forgotten about this recipe. It was last posted here in 2011. I'm happy it's moved back up in the recipe rotation.

I made one recipe in the crockpot and looked at it and decided that maybe that wasn't enough. So later in the day I went back to the store. Bought more turkey, beans and pumpkin and made a second batch on the stovetop. Then stirred them together. The part that didn't fit in the pot went into the freezer for later.

TURKEY, WHITE BEAN, PUMPKIN CHILI

2 lb. ground turkey 

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1-1/2 teaspoons minced garlic (I use the jar kind)

2 teaspoons cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon chili powder (more or less, to taste)

1 teaspoon oregano

2 bay leaves

1 (15-oz) can pumpkin puree (not the pie filling kind)

2 (15-oz) can great northern beans, rinsed & drained

1 (4-1/2 oz) can chopped green chiles

2 cups chicken broth (sometimes I add a little more)

Optional toppings: sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, minced cilantro, etc.

Heat large skillet over high heat. Add turkey and cook, breaking it apart, until done, about 5 minutes. Add to Crockpot. Add oil to skillet, then onions and garlic. Saute about 3-4 minutes. Add cumin and saute another minute. Add to Crockpot.

Add beans, pumpkin puree, green chiles, chili powder, oregano, salt and bay leaves. Stir to mix. Cover and cook on LOW for 7-8 hours or on HIGH for 3-4 hours.  Remove bay leaves before serving.

If you want to skip the Crockpot, make it in a large pot on the stovetop. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for about an hour or so, stirring occasionally.

And a bowl of chili needs warm cornbread to go with it. I like all cornbread and corn muffins. But this has to be my favorite recipe. 

CORNY CORNBREAD

1/2 cup vegetable oil (plus extra for greasing the pan)

1-3/4 cups self-rising cornmeal mix

1 cup cream-style corn 

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream (the light kind works just as well)

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Generously grease a 7x11-inch baking pan or a 10-inch cast iron skillet with cooking oil. Preheat the pan in the oven. 

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, stirring with a spoon until combined. Pour batter into the preheated pan. Place pan in the oven and bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Serve hot.

You can also bake this in a muffin pan. I don't preheat the muffin pan. Makes 12 muffins. Bake for about 25 minute, or until golden brown.

If you have leftover cornbread, wrap it well and pop it in the freezer for a busy day later. 

This weekly TV watching wasn't intended to be a forever thing. But when we reached the end of A Place To Call Home, everyone wants to find a new show and keep the fun going. It's been so nice to spend a comfortable evening with good friends nearly once a week. 

As we count our blessings while we prepare for Thanksgiving, let us say a prayer for the victims of the horrific fires in California, the people who are fighting those fires and those who are caring for the thousands of newly homeless people. 

Almost Missed it

The calendar and I have a long and tortured relationship. From time to time I have been known to confuse the time of an event or show up on the wrong day for an appointment. Not often, but it has happened. So it comes as no surprise that I nearly missed my own birthday lunch.

I got an email this morning inviting me to lunch tomorrow. My birthday IS today but grownups don't always observe the occasion on the actual day. So I gleefully accepted, glad for the chance to spend some time with family I don't see often.

Just before noon today I get a text message saying, "We are here. Where are you?" Our agreed upon time was 11:30. That part I didn't confuse. So I made a quick phone call and said I'd be there in 15 minutes. Dashed out the door. Remember those "come as you are" parties years ago? That's how I went. And I got there in time for a shorter visit than planned, but it was still good.

There is a lesson in all this. The email invitation saying "tomorrow" was written last night and I didn't  see it until this morning. So her "tomorrow" and MY "tomorrow" meant two different days. (This has happened one time before, but I was the one sending the email.)

Let this be a cautionary tale. Learn from us. From now on, we will say "Can you meet me for lunch on TUESDAY?" And for good measure, we will add the date, too. "Can you meet me for lunch on Tuesday, Nov. 13" And maybe, just maybe, we will all end up at the same place at the same time.

You know, if things always went smoothly, there would be precious few—if any—good stories to tell. 😁

Slow Cooking, Fast Life

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Here is a favorite slow cooker meal I haven't made it in ages. But on Saturday I had a full day (I took a Christmas card calligraphy class) and knew I didn't want to cook when I came home. Daddy-O was helping cook chicken stew at the fire department all morning. His only request for supper was "not chicken." So beef, it was.

This recipe takes a little more prep than some of the other beef stews I've made—because it calls for coating the beef cubes in flour and browning them before adding to the slow cooker. Not hard, but it takes a few more minutes to prep and you've got one more pan to wash. BUT that step, combined with the herbs and seasonings, creates a delicious, rich gravy.

We ate this "as is." Other times, I have served it over rice. And on Saturday I wished we had a nice crusty bread to go with it. But the stew is full of vegetables, so we called it complete.

It was awfully nice to walk into the house mid-afternoon and be greeted with the aroma of supper cooking. It was a perfect supper for a cold damp evening. Start it at breakfast time, so it's ready for dinner.

SLOW COOKER BEEF STEW

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1-1/2 to 2 lb. beef stew meat
2 tablespoons cooking oil (or more as needed)
2 medium potatoes, peeled & cut into chunks
2 or 3 carrots, peeled & cut into chunks 
1 onion, peeled & cut into chunks
2 teaspoons instant beef bouillon granules
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram or basil, crushed
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
2-1/2 cups V-8 juice

Place flour in a plastic bag. Add meat cubes and shake until meat is coated with flour. In a Dutch oven brown half of meat in 1 tablespoon of oil, turning to brown on all sides. Brown remaining meat in remaining oil. Drain off any excess oil.

In a 3-1/2 to 4 quart Crockpot, layer potatoes, carrots and onion. Add meat. Add all seasoning. Pour vegetable juice over all.

Cover and cook on LOW for 10-12 hours (or on HIGH for 5-6 hours) until meat and vegetables are tender.  Discard bay leaf.


Because this needs an early start, you need to make sure you have everything ready in the morning. I set out everything I needed the night before. If I were a working mom, I would have even scrubbed the potatoes so they could be cut up quickly. The carrots and onion can be peeled and cut the night before. Just put everything in a freezer ziplock bag. (The heavier freezer bag keeps the onion smell in the bag—and not in your refrigerator.) You can measure out the herbs. And I'm sure if you really need to speed things up, you could skip the flour and brown the meat part. You just will have an "au jus" instead of a thicker gravy.

If you want something simpler, take a look at this recipe for Simple Beef Stew. No browning called for and it's also very good.

The goal at the moment—my goal, at least—is to get from here to January with calm and goodwill intact. To keep at the front of my mind what is important and what can be chunked by the wayside. To remember why we celebrate.

But let's be honest. This is a busy time of year. And it is also the time of year for colds and flu and other bugs that are more prevalent in the winter. When life and the to-do list starts to overwhelm you, have a plan. A minute of focusing on this view from my kitchen door helps me center and find my inner peace. How do you find peace? What do you do to restore calm? What is your "peace plan?" Do you have a 60-second secret? Let's share here and all help each other.

I Am Thankful

Look at your calendar. Or, maybe you'd better not. Thanksgiving is two weeks from today. TWO. WEEKS. I don't know about you but this weekend I need to be making lists, doing some freezer cooking, getting things ready.  Besides "THE dinner" I'll be feeding family for that whole week. I need to jump on the list making .

But let me keep my priorities straight. Before I get lost in grocery list making and cleaning and cooking, let me stop and make a list of what I am thankful for. It's a very long list.

Top item on my list? I am beyond thankful that the family will be home. All of them. These days, it's rare to have the entire family together. For us, it won't happen again during this year. So we will enjoy those few days together.

I'll pop in here when I can between now and then. Maybe post a recipe as I make things. (This blog has become my own personal recipe box. It's easy to keep recipes here so that I can find them again.) But if you don't see me here, chances are you'll find me in the kitchen.

A Few Stitches At A Time

Pattern: Cabled Baby Hat & Mittens set, by Paulina Chin

Last week was an entire week of grandmother things. What did I do? I braided hair. I cooked supper every night. I got up at 4:30 in the morning with a sick little one. I picked up after school. I attended a costume parade. I handed out Halloween candy. I read bedtime stories. 

And in between the grandmother things, I knitted. Just tiny bits here and there. But with these little hats, a few stitches along the way add up quickly. And they are finished, washed and ready to deliver today. This new baby gets them both. The cabled hat is a little bigger than the light blue one, so hopefully the sweet new baby head will stay warm all winter.

Here is my hat “recipe”—

With DK yarn and a 16-inch needle (size 5 or 6) cast on 72 stitches. Join (place marker at join) and knit until it measures 5 to 5-1/4 inches from cast on. Start decreases. (Switch to DPNS when necessary) 
K2tog, K6 to marker; 
K2tog,K5 to marker, and continue likewise...
K2tog, K4; 
K2tog, K3; 
K2tog, K2; 
K2tog, K1; 
K2tog until there are 5 stitches left. 
Work in I-cord for 6 rounds. K2tog until 3 stitches left. Cut yarn and run through those stitches to close. Run down through stem and work in end.